Owen Castellano
Staff writer, editorial desk
Owen writes and updates the guides on Session Notes for Schools. His work is reading federal rules, agency guidance, and professional association documents, turning them into note structures and checklists that are quick to use, and re-checking each guide on a set schedule. He is not a clinician, attorney, or billing specialist, and nothing here replaces your district policy or professional judgment.
How guides are researched and re-checked is described on how we review. To report a correction, use the contact page.
Guides by Owen Castellano
Baseline Data for IEP Goals: What Clinicians Collect
What baseline data is, what 34 CFR 300.320 and a state technical guide say about present levels, and how to collect a baseline to measure progress against.
Group and consult notesConsult Time vs. Direct Service Time in Your Notes
How to document consultation time separately from direct sessions, what ASHA counts as indirect work, and what to write so the log matches the IEP.
Session notesCopy-Paste Session Notes: Risks and Safer Habits
Why identical session notes cause trouble in school records, what reviewers mean by cloned documentation, and how to reuse structure without copying facts.
Session notesCounseling Session Notes in Schools: IEP and FERPA
How counseling notes work when counseling is an IEP related service, what ASCA says about case notes and the sole-possession exception, and what to write.
Group and consult notesDocumenting Accommodations and Supports You Provide
How to record the accommodations and supports an IEP lists when you provide, teach, or check them, using 34 CFR 300.320, 300.323, and 300.42 as the base.
Group and consult notesDocumenting Collaboration With Classroom Teachers
How to record the strategies you share with teachers, push-in sessions, and co-treatment so the IEP's supports and your own work show up in the record.
Service logsDocumenting Contact With Families as a School Therapist
What to record when you call, email, or meet a family as a school therapist, why failed attempts count too, and how 34 CFR 300.322 treats contact records.
Group and consult notesDocumenting Group Therapy Without Naming Other Students
One group, several students, one set of privacy rules. How to write group session notes so each family sees only their own child's data, plus a template.
Group and consult notesDocumenting IEP Meeting Attendance and Your Input
What 34 CFR 300.321 says about who attends an IEP meeting, when a member can be excused, and how a therapist records attendance or sends written input.
Service logsDocumenting Make-Up Sessions for School Services
How to log a missed session and its make-up so the record shows what was owed, why it was missed, and when it was made up, with wording examples.
Session notesDocumenting Telehealth Sessions in Schools
What to add to a school session note when therapy is virtual, based on ASHA's telepractice checklist and AOTA's decision guide, with a sample entry.
Service logsEnd-of-Year Records Closeout for School Therapists
A checklist for closing your school therapy records at year end: late entries, final minutes, reports, hand-offs, and what IDEA says about keeping records.
Session notesFERPA and Session Notes: What to Put on Paper
Are your session notes education records? What FERPA and IDEA say about who can read them, how families get access, and how to write notes that hold up.
Session notesObjective Language in School Session Notes
How to write what you saw and measured instead of labels and guesses in school session notes, with a table of rewrites and where interpretation belongs.
Session notesOT Session Notes in Schools: What to Include
What an OT session note and therapy log should hold in a school setting, based on Illinois recommended practices and AOTA guidance, with a sample entry.
School Medicaid documentationParent Consent for School Medicaid Billing, Explained
What 34 CFR 300.154 requires before a district bills a child's Medicaid for IEP services, what families cannot be required to do, and where clinicians fit.
Goals and dataProgress Data Sheets for IEP Goals: Layouts That Work
Build a data sheet that matches the goal it measures: layouts for accuracy, frequency, duration, latency, prompt level, and ratings, with a worked example.
Goals and dataPrompt Levels and Cues in Session Notes
Why a score without its prompt level misleads, how to build a fixed prompt key for each goal, and how to record cues so progress toward independence shows.
Session notesPT Session Notes in Schools: What to Include
What a school PT visit note should show, from APTA's documentation guideline and the Academy of Pediatric PT, and how it links to IEP goals and equipment.
School Medicaid documentationRandom Moment Time Studies: What Clinicians Do
What a random moment time study is, what one state's participant guide asks school clinicians to do, and how to answer a moment accurately and in detail.
Goals and dataRating Scales in School Session Notes
When a rating scale fits an IEP goal, how to write each level so two people would score the same way, and how to record a rating in a session note.
School Medicaid documentationSchool Medicaid Documentation Basics for Therapists
What CMS lists as the minimum documentation behind a school Medicaid claim, how it lines up with the IEP, and where your state's own rules take over.
TemplatesSession Note Templates for School Therapists
Copy-ready templates for a session note, a group entry, a missed session, a make-up, a consult, and a family contact, built from published guidance.
Session notesSession Note Time-Savers That Keep the Record Sound
Ways to cut note-writing time without cutting what the record needs, from fixed fields to batching, plus what ASHA and APTA say about paperwork load.
School Medicaid documentationSignatures and Credentials on School Therapy Notes
Who signs a school session note, how to show your role and credentials, and what cosigning means for students and assistants, with one state's rule.
Session notesSOAP Notes for School-Based SLPs: Structure and Examples
A four-part session note structure for school SLPs, with do and avoid lists, two invented examples with numbers, and what ASHA says notes should show.
Service logsStart and End Times in School Session Notes
Why actual start and end times beat scheduled blocks in school notes, what ASHA and CMS say about minutes, and how to handle late arrivals and fire drills.
Service logsTracking IEP Service Minutes: Methods Compared
Four ways to track IEP service minutes compared on setup, strengths, and risks, plus how to define a session, record missed time, and check each week.
Service logsWriting a Service Log Entry That Holds Up
What every service log entry needs, how to word delivered, missed, and make-up sessions, and three questions to test your log against before a review.
Goals and dataWriting Progress Report Sentences From Session Data
How to turn session data into progress report sentences a family can read: a four-part pattern, wording swaps, and what to say when progress is slow.